


It Begins

by Sir_Carl_Poppa



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 19:13:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6252106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sir_Carl_Poppa/pseuds/Sir_Carl_Poppa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shane rescues Lori and Carl from King County and takes them to the Atlanta, under the assumption that Rick has died.  Carl tries to cope with the dying world and the loss of his father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Begins

**Author's Note:**

> This story was thrown together quickly for a writing contest, so forgive any errors. Note that it may not 100% line up with canon.

“Where is Rick, Shane?” my mother was asking the policeman who’d worked with Dad.  
  
“I’m sorry, Lori…” he replied, trailing off. I furrowed my brow, instinctively moving closer to my mom, looking up at her as I did so. She looked sad. She looked like she didn’t believe him.  
  
“What are you saying?”  
  
“The life support machine had stopped working by the time I got to him. Lori, he wasn’t breathing,” Shane replied. I didn’t like this.   
  
“Mom?” I asked, feeling my voice catch. She spared a glance down at me before returning a teary-eyed gaze to Shane.  
  
“You mean he’s…?” she choked. I knew what she meant, but I didn’t want to accept that. Shane, too, glanced down at me, looking upset as well, before turning a pained expression to my mother.  
  
“I’m afraid so,” he answered softly.  
  
In denial, I looked up at my mother, tugging on her clothes, “He could still be okay, right?” She looked down at me, and I could see in her eyes the very thing I didn’t want to see. She didn’t say anything, she just placed a hand on my head before pulling me tight against her. I couldn’t believe it. I’d been afraid when I’d heard he’d been shot, but we’d thought he’d get better. My eyes began to sting as tears welled up inside them and began to spill down my cheeks and into my mother’s clothes. I couldn’t believe my father was gone. That just seemed completely and totally implausible. I remained still, shell shocked as I was, clinging desperately to my mother as I cried, refusing to look at their faces, refusing to see the looks on them that told it all, the looks that said clear as day: “Your father is dead, Carl.”  
  
“I have to get you two to the refugee center in Atlanta,” I heard Shane saying to my mother decisively, “It’s what Rick would have wanted. It’s dangerous here.”  
  
I could feel my mother trembling, but she said nothing. I held onto her as tightly as I could. After a moment, I felt her hand gently patting my head. She was trying to be comforting, but this didn’t bring my dad back. It didn’t make it any easier to breathe. At length, she spoke to me, in a soft voice, “Carl, we need to leave with Shane, now.”  
  
She grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back slightly, crouching so as to be at eye level, and stared expectantly in to my red, dripping eyes. I didn’t want to leave, not without my dad, but what choice did I have? I couldn’t find my voice to convey this to her anyway, and so I merely gave her a weak nod, raising a hand to wipe at my tears in a failed attempt to dry my face.  
  
“Go pack a few changes of clothes, alright?” she said after a moment. Trying to hold myself together so as not to appear weak, I simply nodded again, going to my room in a haze. I felt unstable on my feet, and everything seemed somehow foggy. I wasn’t fully aware of what was happening, of what I was doing, but I caught sight of my Science Dog shirt making its way into the bag I was packing. For a moment after filling it, I just… stopped.  
  
The things we had heard and seen on the TV had been horrible enough. This sickness, whatever it was that was bringing the dead back… it was terrifying, if I was honest. Who wouldn’t be terrified, given the circumstances? But now, on top of that, to hear that my dad was gone? I felt numb, achy… and more than anything, afraid. That’s the only way to describe whatever was happening inside my chest. It was the most powerful fear I had ever known. Things had been normal, but now, in such a short time, the world had changed into something horrible. I didn’t know how to process it, what to feel, so all I felt was emptiness… and terror. It all felt like a bad dream. It had to be a nightmare.  
  
At length, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and casting my gaze behind me, met my mother’s concerned eyes. She took notice of the bag I’d packed and gingerly hefted it from the floor, taking one of my hands in her free one. Her sad eyes held my own for a moment, saying so much to me. I don’t know what to say to you, son. This isn’t what I wanted. I’m so sorry that this is happening to you. I wish your father were here. Until she spoke aloud, saying simply, “Come on, Carl.”  
  
I don’t remember leaving the room, or the house. I don’t remember anything after that, except a ringing sound in my ears, a sense of disorientation, and disbelief, until I came to my senses again in the moving car. For a moment, I had a feeling of having woken up from a nightmare, for a moment I thought none of it was real… until I realized that in the driver’s seat was Shane, not my father. Being hit so forcibly by that realization that it was not a dream seemed to cripple me. I felt as though I were collapsing inward—this shouldn’t be possible. Nothing made sense. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, but it hurt… I was hurting. That may be all I knew in that moment.  
  
***  
  
We’d been in the camp here for a while now. I had accepted our new life; Shane had been very good to my mother and I. He almost felt like another father, but I didn’t let myself think about this much, because I didn’t want to miss my real father. I liked to distract myself from that. The adults of this group were good at providing for us; they hunted, fished, and went on runs down into Atlanta to scavenge food from abandoned buildings. My mother and I stayed in the camp almost always, just like the other kids and their mothers did.  
  
It was a day like any other; I was practicing a knot Shane had taught me, and nearby I could hear him arguing with my mother—this wasn’t uncommon, but I never said anything to either of them about it. I didn’t talk much at all, really. Today they were discussing putting up a sign to warn people away from Atlanta… and not for the first time. I’d heard all these things more than once before.  
  
“Shane we can’t just let people go into the city knowing what’s there,” she was saying. He wouldn’t have any of it.  
  
“Lori, we don’t have the time. We have too much to do to take care of ourselves, and I’m not gonna jeopardize this group like that,” he retorted harshly.  
  
Most of the arguments about this were just reiterations of those same two ideas, my mother saying it needed done and that we should make the time to do it, while Shane told her it couldn’t be done, nor could we make the time. I tried to stop listening and kept working on my knot. My dad would have known the best solution, I told myself, giving up on the difficult knot and instead beginning to tug at blades of grass. I tuned them out, acting on pretty much autopilot as the day went on. At one point we heard someone trying to contact us on the radio; someone heading into Atlanta. My mom and Shane had the same fight again. I wished they wouldn’t.  
  
Then my mom decided she wanted to go stop the person. For a moment I panicked, but Shane told her no, and she stormed away. As my mom returned to our tent, I started to follow her, but Shane stopped me and he went instead. I waited, impatiently, rather unhappy that she’d even thought of leaving me like that, with dad gone and all. After a few moments, I headed for the tent anyway, and called out to her. Shane was leaving as I drew close, and spoke to me very briefly, telling me she was inside. Once he was gone, I entered the tent. My mom met me in the entrance, crouched and taking my hands. She assured me she wasn't going anywhere, and I nodded eagerly. We stayed there for a while.  
  
“Mom I don’t want you to ever go,” I said at length, “You don’t need to go near the city, right? I don’t want to lose you.”  
  
“You’re right. Shane’s right. I won’t be going out there, okay, Carl?” she said, crouching a bit before me and brushing my hair back a little. I nodded and she hugged me close. When she broke off the embrace and returned to tending things that needed doing, I went off to find something else to do, but as usual, it was very mindless. Nothing really interesting happened until we were radioed by the team who were on a run in the city and learned that they were trapped; Shane told my mom and Amy that we couldn’t send anyone to save them or we’d risk the rest of the group. This world was so harsh; it scared me. Those people wouldn’t be coming back alive, just because we’d have to risk ourselves to save them…  
  
Or so we thought. It wasn’t long before a loud alarm could be heard blaring out and echoing through the valleys. The sound, it turned out, was emanating from a red sports car that raced back to our camp and parked, one of our runners, Glenn, emerging from it. Some of the other adults berated him for the sound, saying it would draw the walkers to us, and they silenced it. Amy demanded to know where her sister was. I stood with my mother, simply watching. At length, a truck came up behind the red car and parked. Our runners began to emerge and reunite with their families. Thinking about my father, and how we’d never reunite with him, tears came to my eyes. My mother crouched down in front of me and took my hands, trying to comfort me, but it was still hard. Why was it so hard? It had been so long now since we’d lost him…  
  
“How’d y’all get outta there anyway?” Shane was asking the group.  
  
"New guy,” Glenn replied, “he got us out.” Shane inquired further, and another runner confirmed, calling out to the newcomer and telling him to come say hello.  
  
“Guy’s a cop like you,” he was saying to Shane. I heard footsteps, and everything got quiet.  
  
I was still looking at my mother, but at the silence, I turned to see this guy. The figure that had emerged from the truck was impossible. It couldn’t possibly be who it appeared to be, could it? That didn’t make sense. My mind was doing flips, and saw no reason to this; nor any reason to try to comprehend this very thoroughly. That figure, it was one I knew well, one I recognized with ease. He looked just as surprised as I did and began to run towards my mother and myself. Hesitating no further, I broke free from my mother and ran towards him eagerly.  
  
“Dad! DAD!”  
  
We collided in a hug, the purest joy filling me as my dad and I fell to the ground for a moment before he lifted me up, kissed my head, and hurried towards my mother. When he reached her, she joined the embrace. I didn’t know how he’d come back to me, nor did I care. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. My father was back. That was all that mattered for now.


End file.
